Mouse Recommendations for my iMac?

[~Shard~]

Duff-Man says...you'll be surprised at just how easy it is to find great uses for those extra buttons - back/forward in your browser, copy/paste, and it does not take very long to get used to using them..but if you go that route with a Logitech USB Overdrive is almost a must have - its worth the $$....oh yeah!

I've actually been thinking more and more along these lines myself ever since I started looking into a new mouse. Although I was initially only after a 2-button mouse, I know see where extra buttons could definitely come in handy. They might make me more lazy, but who cares! Thanks again for the input Duff-Man - and here's hoping we get out iTMS tomorrow, eh!!!

 

[~Shard~]

I have to say that I don't want to take anything away from the other guy's experiences with it, but I have had absolutely no problems with The Mouse & I use my Mac for a minimum of 4 hrs every day... plus I have never really come to grips with keyboard shortcuts so I am a mouse-intensive user. When I was looking at replacing the dinky little notebook mouse that was sold to me with my iMac, I went into the Apple reseller & was struck by how all the mice looked exactly like PC mice (partly because most of them were) except for The Mouse & the Apple mouse (of course). That pretty much made up my mind - having to use a PC 8 hrs + a day for my job, I want to come home to something as un-PC-like as possible.

And just to back myself up, here are some reviews of The Mouse:

MacAddict

Envy News

SpyMac

Mac Companion

I guess the best way to work out what's best for you would be to find a friendly shop assistant who would be willing to plug one in for you on a demo Mac so you could try it for yourself.

Thanks 2much, I appreciate the alternate opinion - that's totally what I'm looking for here to make the best possible choice. I have seen The Mouse on display at my local London Drugs so maybe I'll ask for a test-drive next time I'm in - it'll give me an excuse to use their new PowerMac and display as well...

 

[~Shard~]

man, you are so right. i think mice in a few years (for pc's ) will start coming standard with 4 or 5 buttons... they should anyway.
it'd be really cool to have full exposé functionality on your mouse(!!!).
dang! i think i'll go buy a 80-button mouse right now!

An 80-button mouse? I think they already have those - they're called keyboards. All you need to do is add a scroll-wheel and optical sensor to your keyboard and your set!

 

[UWStudent]

I use a Logitech MX900 wireless BlueTooth mouse. I absolutely love it. Besides the requisite 2 buttons + scroll wheel, it also has 2 buttons on the left thumb side, 2 more above & below the wheel, and additional one also below the wheel. (Confusing sounding I'm sure, just go to their site and see what I mean). This is great because you can use Apple's System Preferences->Expose to bind 3 of the buttons to the Expose keys. The remaining two buttons (located above & below the wheel) are pre-bound to scrolling up & down. Why is this useful when you already have a scroll wheel? Because sometimes you go to webpages or documents that are just obscenely long, and rather than rolling the wheel over and over, you can just click and hold the scroll button. My only gripe about it is that there is no on-off switch, and so the rechargeable batteries only last me a day. I heard that getting better rechargeable batteries helps though.

In your case, I would highly recommend getting a similar Logitech USB mouse. However, the MX900's charging station also doubles as a BlueTooth reciever which you can plug into your computer. I haven't tried this yet, I just use it for charging, but you could add BlueTooth to your iMac this way. The quality is good and its not a Micro$oft product.

 

[Dr. No]

What is the difference between the Logitech MX 500 and MX510??

 

[Duff-Man]

What is the difference between the Logitech MX 500 and MX510??

Duff-Man says...beside $10??? I think the diff is the 510 uses the newer optical sensor - higher resolution...supposedly more accurate tracking. I have never had any tracking/accuracy problems but then I am not a gamer or high-end graphics guy.....oh yeah!

 

[netherfred]

microsoft, I love

Hi,

having troubles with stiff hands and fore-arms after computer use, I tried about everything there is on the market for a reasonable price. At uni (on a PC) I use a Logitech TrackMan Wheel, which sells here in the Netherlands for about 35 euros. At home also had the same mouse, but here's the story about that: my wrists also started to hurt after typing, so I got a Microsoft Natural Keyboard at work (great!). As for the Mac these don't come separately I had to buy the whole Wireless Optical Desktop Pro 2.0 set from Microsoft with a (for me, complementary) Intellimouse Explorer. Somehow I never used that, but at some point the Logitech trackball also seemed to give me pain at home. So I tried the Microsoft mouse and now I really love it! The weird thing is that here the mouse is rather expensive (42 euros or so, wireless or not doesn't seem to make too much of a difference) but the whole set is a lot cheaper than the combined parts separately (42+45 and 69). Oh btw I disabled the scrollwheel functions of both devices, since these seemed to be contributing a lot to the aches I have/get.
So: try a Logitech Trackman Wheel or a Microsoft Intellipoint Explorer, but the best advice would be to get something that _you_ feel comfortable with.
And if you also have pain in your wrists I also suggest to get Workpace, which is annoying but in the long term very good for your health

 

[KSource]

Microsoft Intellipoint Explorer Optical Wireless Version... I would not suggest that one.

I stopped using mine a week or so ago due to the fact it had blown up another battery for the 4th time, but this time it managed to actually explode the contents out and blast onto my table with battery content.

Previous experiences involved a nice bam sound and some battery fluid leaking onto my desk.

Probably a defect of my mouse, but whatever. I've had it for over a year and it probably started doing it half a year ago?

Stuck with some 15 dollar Logitech.

 

[cube]

Shop around. I was going to get the MX500 because I don't need wireless, but I found an online store which had the MX700 for only the equivalent of $10 more (and about $1 shipping).

 

[mdetry]

Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0

I am using the Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0 and it very solid, has an extraornary wheel. It´s Great. It´s Microsoft, I know, but this mouse is great.

I had befor one Wirelles Optical 1.0 or Basic and really was very bad.
The 2.0 is really good.